August 2 Resuming our cross-country trip and a great rail trail

On a beautiful morning, we got all packed up and left about 8:30 am.  It was hard saying goodbye to our grandsons but it was time to move on. After navigating over various trails and roads with bike lanes, we joined the Badger State trail and headed south from Madison.  The first few miles were paved and actively used, then it became mainly a hard-packed mowed two-track which was easy to travel on--at times we were traveling 13-14 mph through picturesque farmland. As we got farther south there was also occasional limestone cuts that the trail went through. 
When we got to the section where there is a tunnel, we were  bummed that the tunnel was closed but the detour around this section got us to go up and down some steep hills with some beautiful views. The second bummer was when we got to another closed section of trail with no explanation and no listed detour. Out came the maps on our phones--do we go east or west?  We ended up having to join the trail just north of Monroe and found out laster that  a truck with a  boom on it forgot to lower it and damaged a bridge that the rail trail takes over the road.  At one point Kay stopped to take some pictures, but this also coinsided with mosquitoes. Jim swatted at one and missed the mosquito but broke his rear view mirror that attaches to his sun glasses.  This mirror has served him well for possiby 10 years.  A praise is that a bike shop along the trail in Monroe had an excellent replacment.  
At the Illinois line, the trail becomes the Jane Addams trail which continues on for 17 miles to Freeport, where we stayed overnight. What was sad is how dilapidated and poor the city appeared as we crossed a sizable portion of it.  
Today was quite a hot day, and we were thankful for being in shade most of the time on the trail and for the breeze which helped to cool us off.    

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